Some hunters say state is under-reporting impact of fatal disease in Jackson County deer population; others aren't overly concerned

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease has been confirmed in 30 counties around the state.File photo

JACKSON, MI -- Hugh Snell said he used to see 20 to 30 white-tailed deer roaming his 120-acre property in Jackson every night.

In recent weeks, he’s been seeing many deer on his property, but they are dead. Snell said he’s seen one live and 38 dead deer in the past couple weeks.

Joe Ives said about 90 percent of the deer population on the 60-acre Jackson property he leases have died.

“I’ve found 18 on my property around the Eagle Lake area,” Ives said.

What Snell, Ives and hunters around the county and state are seeing is the result of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, a disease that has been thinning the deer population ahead of hunting season, and many hunters think the problems in Jackson County are bigger than what the state is reporting.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, 259 cases of EHD have been confirmed in Jackson County through Wednesday. Those figures mean Jackson County has the 11th most of the 30 counties where EHD has been confirmed, according to the DNR.

EHD in and around Jackson

County Confirmed cases

Jackson 259

Calhoun 760

Hillsdale 274

Eaton 112

Washtenaw 26

Lenawee 8

Ingham 7

Statewide 8,430

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Source: Department of Natural Resources; figures through Oct. 2

But some hunters, many of whom have been or are taking advantage of bow hunting season that opened Monday, say the problem in Jackson County is worse. As recently as Sept. 11, only 28 cases of the fatal disease in the county had been confirmed by the state, leading to questions about the actual impact on the herd in the county.

“I don’t think (the DNR wants) people to know about how many deer have died because they won’t be able to sell licenses as easy,” Ives said.

Ives said he called the DNR about the deer he found on his property but no one came to his property to test them.

The DNR says the reason hunters and property owners might be seeing more dead deer than what the DNR is reporting is because testing resources are limited.

“We don’t test every one. If we have a positive township, you can assume it’s EHD because it’s already been confirmed,” said Steve Schmitt, veterinarian with the DNR Wildlife Disease Lab. “It would be a big waste of money if we tested every deer. We also don’t have a lot of biologists on staff to do the testing.”

The disease has killed more than 8,400 deer statewide, according to the DNR. The hardest hit county has been Ionia, where more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed.

Tom Knutson, owner of Knutson’s Sporting Goods and Bait Shop in Brooklyn, said he’s not overly concerned about the disease affecting the herds locally too severely.

“The disease will create barren area,” he said. “Some areas were devastated last years, but they will fill back up over time with the migration of herds. You will see it be bad the first year and as time goes by, numbers of infected deer will get smaller.”

Knutson said he thinks the numbers that come from the DNR are smaller than what hunters are seeing because of how the DNR tests for the disease and how often they test.

“By the time you get to the deer, many times it’s too decomposed to test for it,” Knutson said. “So the numbers are lower than what’s really occurring.”

EHD causes a high fever and internal bleeding in the deer and often kills it within 24 hours of contraction, Schmitt said.

“The disease is transmitted by a biting fly, or a midge,” said Brent Rudolph, a deer and elk program leader at the Rose Lake Field Office of the DNR. “The midge bites an infected deer then bites another deer and spreads it through saliva. It can’t be transmitted deer to deer, to humans or to household pets.”

Livestock infected with the disease don’t die from it and their meat is safe to eat, Rudolph said.

The hot and dry summer conditions contributed to the rise EHD in Jackson County, Schmitt said. The midges grow at a faster rate and there is a higher dose of the virus because of the heat, he said.

“We saw it emerge in late summer this year, which is earlier than normal because it was so hot,” Rudolph said. “We also had a mild winter that didn’t kill many of the flies that carry the disease. All of this gives good conditions for the insects.”

Over time herd populations build up an immunity to the disease, Rudolph said. Because of that the deer will become fairly resistant to it.

Roy Albert, a clerk at Schupbach’s Sporting Goods in Jackson, has been hunting most of his life and said he’s not worried about EHD.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the reason there is so many cases is because of the drought,” Albert said. “There was a drought (in the 1980s) similar to the one we had this year, which also created high EHD levels. The only major difference between then and now is that now the deer population is higher.”

Relief is only a frost away for the deer population. After the first frost, the number of infected deer will lessen because the first frost will kill a lot of midges, Rudolph said.

“It’s one of those things, hunters don’t like,” Schmitt said. “But it’s not like bovine tuberculosis or wasting disease that stays forever. EHD comes and goes and mostly depends on weather conditions.”